James
|only_appearance= |last_appearance= |creator(s)=Rev. W. Awdry |uk_voice_actor= |us_voice_actor= |uk/us_voice_actor=Rob Rackstraw |other_voice_actors= |name=James |title=James the Red Engine |nickname(s)=*James the Really Splendid Engine *Giant Stripy Bee *Big Red Monster *Rusty Red Scrap Iron *Squeaky Wheels |gender=Male |country=*England *Island of Sodor |affiliation=*North Western Railway *The Main Line **Henry **Gordon **Duck **Donald and Douglas **BoCo **Bear **Pip and Emma *Steam Team **Thomas **Edward **Percy |relative(s)= |basis=L&YR Class 28 |arrived_in_shopville= |visited_shopville= }} James is a mixed-traffic tender engine who works on the North Western Railway, usually working along the Main Line. He can be vain and sometimes boastful, but means well and is a hard worker. Personality James is very proud of his splendid red paintwork. He dislikes pulling trucks and believes that he should only pull coaches. He thinks himself superior to the others and can be shallow, boastful, overconfident, naughty and vain, particularly to those who appear old-fashioned, weak, slow or dirty. This has caused him to have somewhat of a rivalry with Edward, Percy, Toby and Duck, as well as Gordon and Henry on occasion. He has acted like this even before he was repainted red. However, on a number of occasions, he has found himself in need of help from those whom he has insulted and is, in the end, apologetic. James was the last of the steam engines to retain a prejudice against diesels. However, after stalling on a cold day, he was rescued by the Works Diesel and had to admit that nothing was wrong with diesels. This appears to be one of the few lessons that has stuck. James has also been portrayed as a prankster, often tricking or scaring the other engines for fun, or to get out of jobs he dislikes doing. However, following a particularly mean-spirited prank he played on Percy in Tale of the Brave, this gimmick seems to have died down. As of the twenty-third series onwards, has been labelled as the "Joker" by Thomas. Starting with the twenty-second series, James is shown to frequently make excuses to get out of pulling trains he deems to be "not good enough". Despite all of that, James has shown a caring side to him. He has a heart of gold, is normally hard-working and like everyone else, wants to be responsible, reliable and really useful on Sir Topham Hatt's railway. Technical Details Basis James is based on the L&YR Class 28, a class of 0-6-0 mixed-traffic tender locomotive designed by George Hughes for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and built by Horwich Works between 1909 and 1912. It was a rebuild of Aspinall's Class 27, with the addition of a Belpaire firebox, a Schmidt/"twin-plug" superheater and the extension of the footplate and front sandboxes. According to The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways, James is an experimental member of the Class 28s; he is fitted with a front pony truck (thus making him a 2-6-0 instead of an 0-6-0), 5'6" driving wheels instead of the class' original 5'1" ones and a Fowler tender. His front sandboxes also appear to be mounted underneath his footplate rather than joined to his leading splashers. The Rev. W. Awdry's original model of James was modified from that of a G&SWR 403 Class 2-6-0, and materials related to Awdry's model layout indicates this was originally considered to be James' prototype. One of the red tender engines is also based on this design. JamesBasis.jpg|James' basis Livery James is painted in NWR red with black lining and gold boiler bands. His dome is brass and his number is painted on the sides of his tender in yellow with black lining. In the Railway Series, James' black lining became blue after Main Line Engines. Between James the Red Engine and Oliver the Western Engine his roof colour was inconsistently illustrated as either black or red; however, since Clive Spong became illustrator, James has been consistently illustrated with a red cab roof. James has also been seen in several other liveries aside from his red one: *In the Railway Series, James would have originally been painted in L&YR passenger black, but any white has never been depicted making his appearance akin to their goods livery instead. In the television series, James was originally depicted as having always been red, even when he was a new engine, the only exception being his appearance in his black livery in The Adventure Begins. He also had red lining on the back of his tender, which was removed after his repaint. This livery also appears in Meet James as part of a reference to the special. *In The Green Controller, James was mistakenly painted in yellow and black stripes on Percy's orders. He was quickly repainted back into his original livery when the problem was noticed. *In Tickled Pink, James was painted in a pink undercoat before his standard red coat could be applied. Although he was said to be in an undercoat, James still retained his lining, number and black wheels and smokebox. This livery also appears in Meet James as part of a reference to the episode. *In The Great Race, James was painted in golden floral patterns for the Great Railway Show. He was repainted back into his original livery when he returned to Sodor. *In An Engine of Many Colours, after hearing Kevin mention the Steamworks did not have any red paint, James dreamed he was painted in many different colours including blue, green and silver, and many more on a turntable near the last dream's final scenes. By the end of the episode, he was repainted in his normal red livery. Appearances in Marsha Mello's Adventures *Chucklesome Trucks Voice Actors *Rob Rackstraw (UK/US) *Fabrice Trojani (France and French speaking Canada) *Masashi Ebara (Japan) *Paul Ottar Haga (Norway) *Gianluca Crisafi (Italy) *Mario Castañeda (Latin America) *Tobias Schmidt (Germany) *Waldemar Barwiński (Poland) *Jeremy Luton (The Netherlands) *Gadi Levy (Israel) *Troells Toya (Denmark) *Lucas Gama (Brazil) *Jorge Teixeira (Spain) *Petri Hanttu (Finland) *Gyurik Istvan (Hungary) *Anton Savenkov (Russia) *Um Sang-hyun (South Korea) *Roger Storm (Sweden) *Loukas Frangoulis (Greece) Trivia *James is named after James Furze, a friend of Edmund Ward's son. *James was originally illustrated in The Three Railway Engines as the red engine who tried to push Henry out of the tunnel. However, children began sending letters to Awdry asking why James was painted red prior to the events of Thomas the Tank Engine. In response, Awdry decided to make the Red Engine a completely different character altogether. *In Sodor: Reading Between the Lines, James is said to have been sold to the NWR in 1923; this creates anachronisms with events laid out in The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways. *In the first series, James was formally introduced in Thomas and the Breakdown Train, which was said to have been his first day on the railway. However, he had appeared in every prior episode as a background character. This may have been done to populate the sets, similar to how the Märklin Engine was used in later episodes. *A large scale working replica of James was built by BBC Visual Effects for a tour in 2003, along with Thomas, Percy, Harold and Jack. The battery powered locomotive is listed in the 2004 Guinness Book of Records as the largest model railway engine ever built, at 2.64 x 1.5 x 6.52 metres. *Andrew Brenner has said in an interview that James is one of his favourite characters, along with Toby, Bill and Ben. *In Toby's New Whistle, James revealed that he once had a three-chime steam whistle. *Since the twenty-first series, James along with Belle are the only characters to have the same voice actors in both English dubs, albeit with different accents. He is also the only male member of the Steam Team to have the same voice actor. *In the French dub of the Classic Series, James was known as Jacques. *Mara Wilson stated on Twitter that James was her favourite character. Category:Marsha Mello's Adventures Characters